Economic Growth Bulgaria Project #16080

Provide Long-Term Mentors to Disadvantaged Youth

by Step for Bulgaria Foundation

Provide Long-Term Mentors to Disadvantaged Youth

Project Report | Nov 13, 2017
Three new mentoring pairs!

By Desislava Ivanova | Projects and internal communications specialist

Dobrina and Svetoslava walking in the park

Dear all,

We would like to share with you some news related to our mentoring program! Recently, we managed to form three new mentoring pairs (between mentors and youths). The first youth, that we connected with a mentor is the 23-year-old Andrey. Until recently, he was unemployed and was looking for a job. Actually, it was harder than usual for him to find a job, because he had lost some of the documents that he needed in order to get started. With the help of his new mentor Plamena, he managed to issue the necessary documents and started working in a warehouse. Andrey has interest in the field of journalism and, apart from Plamena, we also linked him with another volunteer who works as a television broadcaster. Now he would receive some professional guidance and advice.

Svetoslava is another youth with whom we have been working for several months. She is 17 years old and is deprived of parental care. She is in a strained relationship with her grandmother with whom she lived until recently. At the moment, Svetoslava lives alone, pays a rent and works in a supermarket. Recently, the Foundation’s team and our mentor, Dobrina, we have joined forces to persuade Svetoslava to continue going to school and return to live with her grandmother. Unfortunately, she did not agree to continue her education for the moment, but preferred to stay on her own. We continue to work on Svetoslava's case and hope that she will return to school next year, as she assured us in the course of our last conversation.

Yordan is the third youth that we would like to tell you about. He is a 16 years old school student who loves to draw and is very talented! Yordan is the eldest of three children in his family and is in a difficult family environment because of his father’s illness, who is suffering from multiple sclerosis. We met Yordan with a mentor named Alexander who works as an architect. Alexander linked him to a friend of his who will give him free lessons in some sort of drawing software. We are so happy for Yordan and that he receives this wonderful opportunity to further develop his talent!

We will continue supporting underprivileged youths in their daily needs. We will also continue our search for new youths in need of our assistance, as well as with the forming of new mentoring pairs. Thank you so much for your support! We will continue to inform you of our progress!

Best regards,

The Step for Bulgaria Foundation

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Aug 25, 2017
Two new workshops and new additions to our Mentoring program

By Desislava Ivanova | Projects and internal communications specialist

One of the schools located in Kostinbrod

Greetings from the Step for Bulgaria Foundation! We are happy to inform you that our Mentoring program continues to develop and that the number of the participants in it also grows. Recently, another underprivileged youth has become part of our community. In July 17-years old Svetoslava contacted the Foundation with a request to receive mentoring support in finding a new job and for extra-curricular activities. Because of her working commitment, Svetoslava was lagging at school, so she wanted to catch up in some of her school subjects. She turned to us after she had to take some resits. We met her with two of our mentors - Gergana and Dobrina. Gergana will help Svetodlava in her Spanish lessons during the new school year, while Dobrina will prepare her for her Bulgarian language lessons. Meanwhile, the girl managed to find a new job, and now she is going to combine her with her lessons.

The other good news that we would like to share with you is that in September we plan to organize two career development workshops for the students of two secondary schools – one in Sofia and one outside the capital. We would like to meet the youths who study there with inspiring professionals from different fields. They will tell them more about their work and will discuss with them what does their job require in terms of mind-set, skills, knowledge and experience. This will help them become better acquainted with the different professions and follow a career path that meets their interests, aspirations and ambitions.

We hope that pretty soon, as a result of the two career development workshops, we will have more good news for you. We will continue to share with you the dreams and achievements of our youths, as well as the future activities that we plan and their results. Thank you so much for being a part of our success stories!

Best regards,

The Step for Bulgaria Team

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May 31, 2017
Expanding the Mentoring program to underprivileged schools

By Desislava Ivanova | Projects and internal communications specialist

Vesela's repaired computer set

Greetings from the Step for Bulgaria Foundation!

We are happy to inform you that our Mentoring program continues with full force! We are discussing the possibilities of a recent partnership with 12 schools situated in underprivileged areas in the outskirts of Sofia and in the Sofia Region. We are planning to choose six of them and to develop the Program at the time of the coming school year. We intend to design it as a bridge between business and school education, possibly by applying some international expertise coming from the part of our partners.

The mentoring help that we offer expands beyond school education. A recent example of that and a personal story that we would like to share with you is that of Vesela, one of our youths. She is studying Psychology in the New Bulgarian University in Sofia. Vesela is a full-time student with a part-time job. Her mentor is helping her with her Spanish lessons. The girl could not afford to buy herself a computer for her studies, so as to prepare her lessons and assignments. She was one of the first to benefit from the assistance that the Foundation offers in the form of provision of computer and peripheral equipment. Recently, the computer that Vesela had received as a donation broke-down and was repaired shortly after with the help of her mentor and by using the resources, offered under the Mentoring program. The computer was returned to Vesela fully-operational and she managed to submit all her written assignments on time!

We hope that with the development of our Program in the near future, we could reach even more young people and offer them the assistance they need in order to take advantage of various opportunities for personal and professional development that exist around them! Your kind and generous support to our cause is what makes this scenario possible! Thank you! We look forward to continue with of our efforts and harvest the best results possible!

Sincerely,

The Step for Bulgaria Foundation team

Vesela on a youth exchange in Spain

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